PHILADELPHIA — Before social media and brand marketing and everything else that’s snatched away most genuine reactions from team sports, Charles Oakley, the enforcer and spokesman of the Knicks, told a ballboy, “Go get that broom.”
The Knicks were in Philadelphia and just completed a first-round sweep of the Sixers. Charles Barkley played the role of villain in that best-of-five series, and Oakley hated Barkley.
So the ballboy, Gerald Brown, retrieved the court sweeper and a famous picture was created at The Spectrum. Oakley, Mark Jackson, Sidney Green, Johnny Newman and Eddie Lee Wilkins all had their hands on the broom.
Final insult. The photo was the back page of The Post.
